Office Visit: Fund or defund?

There was good news last week in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) world, but it had a short shelf life.

The good news was that independent physicians were not jumping to hospital employment as fast as once projected by the health care industry. A HealthLeaders Media Intelligence Report showed that the current average ratio of independent to hospital-employed physicians is 64 percent to 36 percent. This means the role of independent physicians in the delivery of health care is alive and well despite efforts of the Obama administration to discourage independence and reward hospital employment.

However, Obamacare took a significant hit last week as the House passed a resolution to fund the government and defund Obamacare. Speaker of the House John Boehner said after the vote, “Our message to the United States Senate is real simple: the American people don’t want the government shutdown and they don’t want Obamacare.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor echoed Boehner’s sentiment, saying, “the House has been fighting to stop Obamacare since 2009. We have said over and over again, this law is going to increase the costs for the working middle-class families in this country and we’re now seeing it. We’ve said from the beginning that this law will harm our economy and we’re seeing our economy turn from a full-time job economy to a part-time job economy.”

The bill developed by the House aims to keep the government running through mid-December, but force lawmakers to reconsider the future of the health care law. A congressional research arm suggests that any efforts to defund Obamacare are a waste of time and should not be used as a leverage tool. They told U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in a memo that repeal efforts would be ineffective because the law continues regardless of a shutdown and that most of the funding comes from new taxes and fees that continue even in the event of a government shutdown.

What that basically means is if the government cannot work out a compromise and many functions of the government shut down on Oct. 1 (which consequently is the same date health exchanges open), there is not much the American people can do to stop it. House officials are throwing a Hail Mary toward the Senate, but the chance of a victory is not likely.

David Holden is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and currently serves on the board of directors with McBride Orthopedic Hospital in Oklahoma City.

Have you seen the pumpkins of all shapes and sizes being unloaded and arranged at the Myriad Botanical Gardens? The Myriad Gardens Foundation is preparing for the sixth annual Pumpkinville, which will take place Oct. 6-22 at the park.